Case Number 16240

La Grande Bouffe

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All Rise...

Judge William Lee wants to know where's the beef in this infamous movie.

The Charge

"That's good meat."

Opening Statement

One of those infamous art house movies, La Grande Bouffe stirred
controversy when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973. It was
released in the United States with an X rating then, which is equivalent to
today's NC-17 label. Disappointingly, The Big Feast doesn't satisfy our
contemporary appetite for shocking cinema and the content is less than
filling.

Facts of the Case

Four middle-age friends—an airline pilot, a judge, a television
producer and a chef—hole up in a Parisian villa for a giant feast. They
hire some prostitutes to keep them company and invite the local schoolteacher as
well. Once things get rolling, it's an endless parade of sex and food. The men's
ultimate goal is to eat themselves to death.

The Evidence

I first read about La Grande Bouffe on a magazine's list of 100
must-see movies and the synopsis of the plot really caught my attention.
Developing my gourmet tastes for foreign cinema at the time, I tried to watch
anything that sounded unique. This impulse led me to discover many fine films
and many great filmmakers. This same curiosity also prompted me to seek out
notorious works like Pasolini's Salo, Or
the 120 Days of Sodom and that was certainly not a positive viewing
experience. Sometimes I wonder whether I need to see every movie with a
reputation in order to maintain my film lover credibility? Would my perspective
on movies be radically deficient if I hadn't seen Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer or The Passion of the Christ? Strip
away the high-minded excuses and I have to admit that I'm just looking for a
thrill sometimes. When controversy surrounds a movie, I want to say: Go ahead
and try to shock me.

To my surprise, I was not shocked by anything I saw in La Grande
Bouffe. It starts off slowly but it isn't a dull movie. It's crudely
humorous—never has an arty foreign film featured so much farting—and
visually arresting. Perhaps the scenes of orgies and gluttony had a bigger
impact on audiences in 1973. While those scenes are not family-friendly by any
era's standard, they certainly won't upset today's viewers, provided they know
what to expect in general.

Four heavyweights of European cinema—Marcello Mastroianni (Ginger and Fred), Philipe Noiret (Woman Times Seven), Michel Piccoli (Belle Toujours) and Ugo Tognazzi (Barbarella)—play the main
characters, each taking the respective actor's first name. Vaguely defined,
their personalities are distinguished from each other by body type, profession
and designated busy work at the villa. Ugo, for example, is responsible for most
of the cooking so he's always insistent that they stick to their meal schedule.
Marcello gets a lot of mileage as the charming, sex-hungry pilot.

Once the feast begins, they only pause for sex. As the weekend wears on,
they endure the consequences: fatigue, indigestion and eventually madness. The
spectacle of the over-eating coupled by the performances makes it hard to turn
away from the action. The ample portions of humor keep the tone light. However,
when it was over, I wasn't sure what to make of the movie. Director Marco
Ferreri (Tales of Ordinary
Madness) must be making a statement but it's hard to put a finger on the
meat of his social commentary.

Do the men represent the bourgeoisie? Is the movie about the excessive
indulgences of the wealthy? Is there a class war between the men and their
prostitutes? And why the suicide pact? Consider the scene where a toilet
explodes and covers one of the men in excrement. It's a funny moment that made
me laugh but what's the reason for it? Why does the toilet explode and, for that
matter, why haven't we seen anyone use a toilet considering all the eating
that's happening? Surely, the scene must be more than a mere toilet joke.
Whatever Ferreri's message is, I must admit that I didn't get it.

The technical presentation on this Koch Lorber release is decent. The image
is slightly soft and the constant grain is more pronounced in the darker parts
of the frame. On the plus side, the picture is anamorphic and generally free of
dust and scratches. Voices can be heard just fine on the mono audio track. In a
few scenes, there's also a nice balance between the interaction on screen and
faint environmental sound effects taking place unseen, outside the villa.
Perhaps that's meant to comment on how these characters are oblivious to the
real world?

The only extra is a five minute excerpt from the documentary "Marco Ferreri:
the Director Who Came From the Future" that concerns this movie. It consists of
a few brief interview clips and footage from the UK premiere. Unfortunately, the
brief excerpt does not provide much context for the film and doesn't do anything
for an introduction to the director's work. To make things more confusing, the
movie is called Blow-Out in the documentary.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

The movie's most memorable performance comes from Andréa Ferréol
(The Last Metro) as the schoolteacher
who accepts an invitation to dinner. She's a contrast to the long hair and
svelte bodies of the hookers but Andréa's healthy, voluptuous persona adds
a sensuality that is otherwise missing. It isn't clear if she wants the same end
the men are pursuing but she's happy to be a part of the proceedings. Her
enjoyment of their liberated sex and consumption of fine food is a reminder of
the bodily pleasures enjoyed by the living.

Closing Statement

Curiosity will continue to draw movie lovers to La Grande Bouffe, but
they'll find that it does not live up to its reputation. Admirers of Ferreri's
films gain a decent but unremarkable DVD of one of his essential works. Koch
Lorber doesn't do new viewers any favors with its inclusion of a short
documentary clip rather than a proper featurette. A little historical context
would have been a valuable extra on this disc as an introduction to the movie.
Speaking of context, the quote by Roger Ebert on the DVD's front cover calls it
"an experience [that] hammers your sensibilities." Almost sounds like a
recommendation but the quote is actually taken out of context from his negative
review of the movie.

The Verdict

The movie is remanded pending further evidence of what the director was up
to. The DVD can save time by thinking about its last meal now.